Paris 2024 surfing: All results, as men’s semi-finals see Kauli Vaast, Jack Robinson advance to gold-medal final at Teahupo’o

Surfing is back — after a three-day delay awaiting better wave conditions — at the Olympic Games Paris 2024.

The competition resumed on Monday, 5 August, the final day of the 10-day competition window at Teahupo'o on the island of Tahiti in French Polynesia.

In the men’s semi-final, four surfers fought it out in two head-to-head heats with the local Tahitian, France’s Kauli Vaast, and Australia’s Jack Robinson advancing to the final gold-medal match — only one will stand atop the podium as the new Olympic champion.

The remaining two surfers, Brazil’s Gabriel Medina and Peru’s Alonso Correa, will vie for a bronze medal.

With no defending medallists from Tokyo 2020 advancing to this semi-final match, Paris 2024 will see an all-new surfing podium.

Vaast was nearly speechless after advancing to the gold-medal final. “I don’t know if I can put any words to this feeling right now," he said. "Since the beginning [of the contest], I've just been having fun and enjoying the moment and making heats, so there is one more coming now … I’ll go home right now and rest a little, do my routine and get ready to go all in.”

Robinson was in a hurry to "get rest" ahead of the gold-medal final, only saying of his first wave, “It was brutal — elbows and shoulders, whatever was needed.”

The much-anticipated surfing semi-final competition was strategically scheduled to coincide with a rising southwest swell, offering both tubes and open faces for turns. The swell is expected to increase throughout the day as the competition culminates in the medal matches.

Heat 1 saw a goofy-foot vs. goofy-foot matchup with Vaast against Correa. Vaast, who grew up surfing Teahupo'o, flexed his local knowledge against Correa, using a strong combo of tube time and gouging top turns to punch his ticket to the finals with an overall wave score of 10.96 over Correa’s 9.60.

Heat 2 started off strong, with Robinson and Medina battling in a much-anticipated match. The initial exchange saw Robinson take the first wave, with Medina immediately following on the next. Medina’s wave was bigger, with the three-time world champion flowing a carving top turn into a radical, fins-free snap into the close-out section to earn a single-wave score of 6.33 to Robinson’s 4.50.

Robinson dialled in on his direct line to the wave gods to come back with the best barrel of the day, exiting the barrel and before banging a big lip bash into the closeout section for a wave score of 7.83 to take the lead over Medina. And then the waves turned off, and Medina was left scrambling to find a second-wave score. The heat finished with Robinson earning a combined wave score of 12.33 and Medina ending with his single wave score of 6.33.